18 
AMERICAN - AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
pair of either birds or young pigs nicely, 
and allow room for boxes for food, and a 
cup for water. Convenient rope handles can 
be placed on the ends. D. Z. E. 
The Old and the New. 
Many dwellings may be much improved 
by changes in the structure itself, and by ad¬ 
ditions to it on one or more sides. The ac¬ 
companying engravings show a plain and un¬ 
inviting house, and its cozy and comfortable 
appearance since the changes have been 
made. The roof is altered by the addition 
of two windows that serve to light the upper 
rooms and relieve the plainness of the ex¬ 
terior. The main addition is the piazza, that 
extends along the front and one side of the 
house. The comfort that this gives to the 
cover them. In the center is a ventilator, 
formed of four, six, or eight-inch boards, nail¬ 
ed together. This should be long enough to 
run up through the straw. No sheep house 
should be without an escape provided for bad 
air. At one corner of this enclosure is an 
entrance, built also of fence boards, nailed to 
posts about two and a half or three feet high; 
it is about two feet and a half wide, and cov¬ 
ered over with boards to hold up the straw. 
This entrance runs from the outside of the 
stack to the house, like a tunnel, and is so 
low that no calf would be likely to enter it, 
consequently the sheep have a place secure 
from the intrusion of other animals. This 
house, and the passage leading to it, should 
be built before threshing, where the straw- 
stack is to be located. The straw can 
be carried on to it from the machine. In 
shoe is on, just the same as when it is plow¬ 
ing. If an iron rod cannot be had, a large 
iron spike may be substituted, and answers 
the purpose almost as well. Green wood 
for A PLOW. 
can be used in making the “shoe,” and 
many farmers will prefer it on account of 
being more readily worked. Make it now. 
A COTTAGE BEFORE AND AFTER BEING REMODELLED. 
inmates, especially in summer, can only be 
fully appreciated by those who have lived in 
the “old house” and then in the “new.” 
These engravings are of a house recently 
remodelled. The dwelling has been re¬ 
painted, and together with the small and 
inexpensive ornaments, the transformation 
is so great as to entirely disguise the old 
house. This will doubtless suggest to many 
changes that may be made in dwellings. 
A Good Sheep House. 
BY EBEN E. REXFORD. 
I have lately seen a house for sheep, so 
great an improvement on the shelters usually 
provided, that I think a description should 
be given for those readers of the American 
Agriculturist who live in straw-producing 
localities. This “house” is cheap, and warm, 
and has the great merit of affording the 
sheep a place where they can stay by them¬ 
selves. In most barn-yards at the West the 
sheep take their chances at the straw-rack, 
during the winter, along with calves, colts, 
and often grown cattle, and sometimes at the 
cost of their lives. The sheep house is built 
of boards, nailed to ordinary fence posts, and 
is about as high as the usual fence. Several 
poles are laid across the top of these boards 
to form a support for the straw which is to 
this way, at little expense, a warm place of 
shelter can be made. When vicious calves or 
colts chase them, they can get out of their 
way. It would be better for all if cattle and 
horses were kept in a separate enclosure. 
A Plow^Shoe.” 
A Plow “ Shoe ” is something new to many, 
though there are some of our readers who 
have used such a useful article 
for years, and find it a great 
convenience in going from 
place to place. Any one with 
but little mechanical ingenuity 
can make one of these “shoes,” 
and they will last almost a life¬ 
time. A tough piece of hick¬ 
ory, four inches wide, two and 
a half inches thick, and twenty 
inches long, should be used. The front end 
is pointed as well as rounded up, so it will 
slip easily. A broad, flat staple is securely 
fastened in, near the front end, to hold the 
point of the plow, which slips under it. At a 
suitable distance back (according to the kind 
of plow), is a half-inch iron pin, project¬ 
ing about three inches. This goes inside 
of the mould-board of the plow, when the 
“shoe” is on, and prevents its slipping off. 
The team is attached to the plow when the 
A Simple Farm Gate. 
BY GEO. T. IIAMMOND, COMMACK, N. Y. 
In the November number of the American 
Agriculturist I note a description of “A Sub¬ 
stantial Farm Gate,” the expensiveness of 
which would, I judge, prevent its general 
adoption. I send you a rough drawing 
[see engraving] of a gate without hinges, 
invented some years ago, but as I have 
since seen it used in various parts of the 
country, it is possible that the same 
simple idea may have occurred to and been 
put in practice by others. The gate is 
represented as let down on the ground 
in order to show more clearly the way 
in -which it is built at the hinge end. 
One-lialf of the gate runs, or is pushed 
backwards between the posts; one of these 
is at the termination of the fence; the other 
placed far enough away from the first to 
enable the gate to be pushed backwards 
and forwards, and turned round to open 
and shut between them. The gate is 
placed in proper position between the 
posts, and strips of boards, or cleats, are 
nailed from one post to the other under 
the gate rails. These fasten the gate hr 
position, and make all the hinge that is 
necessary. The boards should be run one 
inch and a half beyond the front stanchion 
of the panel, to go into mortices in the post 
when closing the gate. A hook will pre¬ 
vent cattle pushing the gate open. Thir¬ 
teen years ago I put up twenty-three of these 
gates, and they are all now as good as new, not 
having had a penny expended upon them for 
repairs since they were built. For an ordi¬ 
nary farm gate, to replace old-fashioned posts 
and bars, I know of nothing better, though, 
since I first put them in use, I have devised 
many different plans of gates to be used by 
those who could afford to dispense with sim¬ 
plicity and cheapness, to gratify their love for 
A GOOD SLIDING FARM GATE. 
display, or to put in positions where so simple 
and rough a gate would be out of place. 
A T«l>Ie for Dressing 1 Pork. —A 
good handy table to hold porkers while being 
scraped and dressed, may be made with its 
top curving about four inches. This curva¬ 
ture conforms to the body of the swine, and 
permits the carcass to be put in any position. 
The top of the table may consist of narrow 
strips of hard wood, placed an inch apart. 
